Abstract

In 1561, after a deadlock of many years, a new printing-office was set up in Holland by Jan van Zuren and three others, including the author Dirck Coornhert. After one year of publishing the press concluded most of its activities, and-according to documentary information recently found- the company was dissolved. Jan van Zuren became the sole owner of the firm, which over the next three years only issued a few books on commission. The production then ended completely. What became of the typographical material of the printing-shop has always been a mystery. As a result of bibliographical analysis it has now become clear that all the typefaces, initials and ornaments (including the devices)-in fact the whole inventory-were removed to the French town of Sedan. With the permission of the Duke of Bouillon a press was founded, which issued a number of exclusively Protestant works, most of them in Dutch, together with a few political publications in French emanating from the Calvinist leaders of the Resistance to Spanish rule. In 1565 the first factor to run the printing-shop, Goossen Goebens, made his name known in the imprint of a panegyric on the foundation of the press. The following year his place was taken by Lenaert der Kinderen, who broke his contract with Plantin for this new post. In 1567 the press appears to have been active in another town, again in another country. At some time during this year the printing-shop was moved to Emden in East Frisia, where, in 1569, the typographical material is to be found in a book published by the emigrant Jean Malet. Meanwhile six publications, including five Protestant books, were issued without any imprint. Circumstantial evidence justifies the conclusion that one or both of Dirck Coornhert's brothers then were running the printing-office, which they probably already owned in the Sedan period.